VRIJE UNIVERSITEIT RABI'A FROM NARRATIVE TO MYTH

296 Pages·2013·3.05 MB·English

by  Cornell, Vincent

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Rabi a from narrative to myth: the tropics of identity of a muslim woman saint
Cornell, R.
2013
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Cornell, R. (2013). Rabi a from narrative to myth: the tropics of identity of a muslim woman saint. [PhD-Thesis –
Research external, graduation internal, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam].
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VRIJE UNIVERSITEIT

RABI’A FROM NARRATIVE TO MYTH:
THE TROPICS OF IDENTITY OF A MUSLIM WOMAN SAINT

ACADEMISCH PROEFSCHRIFT

ter verkrijging van de graad Doctor aan
de Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam,
op gezag van de rector magnificus
prof.dr. F.A. van der Duyn Schouten,
in het openbaar te verdedigen
ten overstaan van de promotiecommissie
van de Faculteit der Godgeleerdheid
op donderdag 14 november 2013 om 11.45 uur
in de aula van de universiteit,
De Boelelaan 1105

door

Rkia Elaroui Cornell

geboren te Sefrou, Morocco
promotoren: prof.dr. P.A. van Doorn-Harder
prof.dr. H.M. Vroom
To my dissertation advisors:

Prof. Dr. Pieternella A. Van Doorn-Harder

and

Prof. Dr. Hendrik M. Vroom.

Without you this work would never have been written.
TABLE OF CONTENTS

INTRODUCTION: RABI’A, THE “WOMAN WHO NEVER DIES” . . . . . .. . . . . . 1
The Myth of Rabi’a al-‘Adawiyya as a Master Narrative
Key Premodern Sources and Modern Works on Rabi’a al-‘Adawiyya
The Plan of This Work
1. RABI’A THE TEACHER . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. 30
Who Was the Historical Rabi’a?
Rabi’a in the Earliest Sources
Rabi’a the Teacher and the Culture of Adab
2. RABI’A THE ASCETIC . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . .63
Conceptualizing Asceticism in Early Islam
Terms of Early Islamic Asceticism
Schools and Traditions of Women’s Asceticism in Basra
The Asceticism of Rabi’a and Her Circle
3. RABI’A THE LOVER . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. .107
Rabi’a and the Poetics of Myth
Asceticism and Love Mysticism in Early Islamic Basra
Rabi’a the Muslim Diotima
Rabi’a the Love Poet
4. RABI’A THE SUFI . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .152
The Lady Reconsidered: Can We See the Real “Rabi’a the Sufi”?
Locating Rabi’a the Sufi: What Was a “Sufi” in Eighth-Century Islam?
The Heart as a Metaphor in Early Islamic Mysticism
Rabi’a the Knower
Rabi’a the Sufi and the Limits of the Real
5. RABI’A THE ICON (I): THE SUFI IMAGE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 190
Rabi’a Remembered: Myth, Icon, and the “Reality Effect”
From Visage to Vita: ‘Attar’s Outline of the Rabi’a Myth
Every Picture Tells A Story: ‘Attar’s Emplotment of Rabi’a’s Vita
Postscript: Where Is Rabi’a Buried?
6. RABI’A THE ICON (II): THE SECULAR IMAGE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 228
Rabi’a the Existentialist
Rabi’a the Film Icon
Postscript: Rabi’a, the Phantom of the Miniseries
iv
CONCLUSION: REVISITING THE HISTORIOGRAPHICAL PROBLEM: WHAT CAN
WE SAY ABOUT RABI’A’S LIFE AND LEGACY? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 258
What Can We Say about the Historical Rabi’a al-‘Adawiyya?
What Can We Say about Rabi’a’s Legacy?
SUMMARY (SAMENVATTING) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 277
BIBLIOGRAPHY . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 278

v
ABSTRACT

This work is a study of the Muslim saint Rabi’a al-‘Adawiyya (ca. 717-801 CE), as she has
been depicted in Sufi and non-Sufi literature. Although evidence suggests that a woman
ascetic named Rabi’a actually lived in Basra, Iraq, in the eighth century CE, very little
historical information can be established about her. The great majority of the Rabi’a
narratives consist of tropological constructs and fictional accounts composed in the centuries
after her death. Thus, this study is primarily about historical and literary representation and
the construction of myth. The subject of historical representation is discussed theoretically in
the Introduction. Four main tropes or master narratives are identified that define Rabi’a al-
‘Adawiyya as a Sufi saint: Rabi’a the Teacher, Rabi’a the Ascetic, Rabi’a the Lover, and
Rabi’a the Sufi. Each of these tropes is discussed in detail in Chapters 1-4, tracing their
development, major rhetorical themes, and doctrinal meaning in the Rabi’a narratives.
Chapters 5 and 6 discuss Rabi’a the Icon, showing how she has become a symbolic figure in
both Sufi and modern secular representations. Chapter 5 discusses her portrayal by the
Persian Sufi Farid al-Din al-‘Attar (d. 1220 CE), who composed the first vita of Rabi’a and
provided the outline for all further biographical narratives. Chapter 6 discusses secular
versions of the Rabi’a narrative, which use tropes derived from modern philosophies such as
existentialism and feminism. These tropes are also influential in the depiction of Rabi’a’s
story in cinematic film and television. The Conclusion reassesses the historiographical issues
raised by the Rabi’a narratives with respect to the role of literary theories and approaches in
historical studies. This work draws on numerous sources, both medieval and modern, in
Arabic, Persian, and European languages. It discusses the major schools of representation of
Rabi’a al-‘Adawiyya in medieval Iraq, Syria, Iran, and Egypt and takes the discussion up
through modern scholarly writings and cinematic depictions. Using these writings and
depictions as source materials, the work also provides a critical approach to the
historiographical and literary study of sainthood.
vi
INTRODUCTION
RABI’A, “THE WOMAN WHO NEVER DIES”

In October 1804 the Lewis and Clark expedition, which was organized to explore and
map the lands along the Missouri River in the American Midwest, entered the area where the
Cannonball River and the Heart River join the Missouri River in present-day North Dakota.
They were following a map made by a member of the Mandan tribe, who was asked to locate
the site of Mandan villages and important landmarks. The Mandans called the region
between the Heart and Cannonball Rivers “Heart of the Land” because it was the center of
their world and the heartland of their culture. It was here that Lone Man, the first being, and
First Creator, the Coyote, brought up mud from the Missouri River and its tributaries to build
the Mandan villages. South of the Cannonball River was the home of Old Woman Who
Never Dies. “Of all female life on earth I am the head,” she said. “Cold and blizzard I
subdue . . . I make whatever I plant to grow.”1
Old Woman Who Never Dies originally came from a region far to the south of the
Mandan homeland. When she heard about the villages that Lone Man and Coyote had
created, she resolved to come north and make a female of each species so that life could
continue. For the Mandan and related Hidatsa peoples, Old Woman Who Never Dies
symbolized the female power of rebirth and regeneration; she was the spirit of vegetation and
guaranteed the growth of agricultural crops. Her spirit also entered the body of the Rocky
Mountains to make sure that the rivers would always flow. Her creative spirit entered into the
body of the first woman to insure that females would always produce children. Out of her
spirit, she created Woman Above and the Holy Women of the Groves of the Four Directions.
The Holy Women were spirits of great power who acted as teachers for chosen men.
In the sacred ceremonies of the Mandan and related Hidatsa peoples, both men and women
performed special rituals for the Holy Women so that women would be respected. According
to some legends, Old Woman Who Never Dies maintained her immortality by bathing in the
Missouri River and its tributaries; each time she bathed in the river she came up younger,
until she came up as a young girl.2 According to other legends, she still kept a home far to the
south of Mandan territory, where the Mississippi River empties into the Gulf of Mexico.
Here she lived in a hut beside the sea and ate corn porridge with spoons made of clamshells.3
When I was a young girl growing up in the Middle Atlas Mountains of Morocco, I
had no idea about the Mandan people or Old Woman Who Never Dies. However, I did know
something about holy people. I was born into a family that traced its origins to murabitin,
holy people of the Moroccan countryside. My ancestors were the Banu Amghar, a family of
Moroccan saints that created one of the first ribats or Sufi teaching centers in rural Morocco.
This ribat was located near a spring called Tit-n-Fitr: “Spring of Sustenance” in the
Tamazight language. Known today as Moulay Abdellah, Ribat Tit-n-Fitr can still be seen on
the Atlantic coast of Morocco, several kilometers south of the city of El Jedida. Many

1 Carolyn Gilman, Lewis and Clark: Across the Divide (Washington, D. C. and London: Smithsonian
Books, 2003), 153
2 Virginia Bergman Peters, Women of the Earth Lodges: Tribal Life on the Plains (Norman,
Oklahoma: University of Oklahoma Press, 2000 reprint of 1995 first edition), 31-34
3 Alfred W. Bowers, Mandan Social and Ceremonial Organization (Lincoln, Nebraska and London:
University of Nebraska Press, 2004 reprint of 1950 University of Chicago Press first edition), 197-205
1
legends are told about the holy men of the Banu Amghar, and even today, the festival of Abu
‘Abdallah Muhammad Amghar (fl. 1133 CE) attracts thousands of visitors each year.4
Unlike most girls in rural Morocco in the early 1960s, my father allowed me to leave
my native town for school, first in the small city of Sefrou near Fez and later in the regional
capital of Meknès. At an early age, I was taught the Qur’an because Qur’anic learning was
my family’s tradition. Although my father was a reformer and an innovator, he took his
heritage seriously and tried to maintain the most important traditions of the family. During
each vacation from school, I would spend long periods with him, sharing what I had learned
and listening to the stories and teachings that he related. I developed a reputation for being
different from the other girls of my town. I read a lot, I kept to myself, and I did not think of
marriage as a goal. Because I also had a serious inclination toward religion, the other girls of
my town gave me a nickname that persisted throughout my childhood and adolescence:
“Rabi’a al-‘Adawiyya.”
Despite being compared to Rabi’a al-‘Adawiyya as a child, it did not occur to me to
write about her until I published my book Early Sufi Women in 1999.5 After all, my
nickname was not a compliment. For boys in particular, it meant that I was strange and that
summoning up the courage to get to know me was more trouble than it was worth. I only
thought of writing about Rabi’a after I saw how she was depicted by the Persian Sufi Abu
‘Abd al-Rahman al-Sulami (d. 1021 CE). Sulami portrayed Rabi’a very differently from
most of the legends and hagiographic accounts about her that I knew. Sulami’s Rabi’a was
not a dreamy love-mystic. Instead, she was a tough-minded and clear-headed ascetic and
spiritual master. At turns both a rationalist and a mystic, she was respected by men for the
depth and wisdom of her teachings. She even had male disciples. In addition, when I edited
and translated Sulami’s Book of Sufi Women, I discovered something that Sulami had
overlooked— Rabi’a was not a unique figure in her time but instead represented a tradition of
women’s spirituality that went back more than a century before her. It was then that I
resolved to write a book on Rabi’a al-‘Adawiyya and found my chance to do so in the pursuit
of a doctoral degree at the Free University of Amsterdam.
But what was I to say about Rabi’a? How could I find a framework that would make
sense of the numerous and often contradictory narratives— both Sufi and non-Sufi— that led
to the myth of Rabi’a al-‘Adawiyya as she is known in the Muslim world today? What
metaphor could sum up the different versions of Rabi’a from medieval to modern times? I
discovered a solution to this dilemma in 2004 on a visit to St. Louis, Missouri during the
Bicentennial Celebration of the Lewis and Clark expedition. At the St. Louis Gateway Arch
Bookstore, I bought a copy of Carolyn Gilman’s excellent coffee-table book, Lewis and
Clark: Across the Divide. This book introduced me to the legend of Old Woman Who Never
Dies. I realized that a similar metaphor could apply to Rabi’a al-‘Adawiyya. With the
possible exception of the Prophet Muhammad’s daughter Fatima, more than any other woman
in the history of Islam, Rabi’a is the Woman Who Never Dies.

I. THE MYTH OF RABI’A AL-‘ADAWIYYA AS A MASTER NARRATIVE

4 For information on the Banu Amghar, see Vincent J. Cornell, Realm of the Saint: Power and
Authority in Moroccan Sufism (Austin, Texas: The University of Texas Press, 1998), 32-62
5 Abu ‘Abd ar-Rahman as-Sulami, Early Sufi Women: Dhikr an-niswa al-muta’abbidat as-sufiyyat,
edited and translated with Introduction by Rkia E. Cornell (Louisville, Kentucky: Fons Vitae, 1999)
2
Because Rabi’a al-‘Adawiyya is a figure of myth, she is not a normal subject of
history. In fact, she does not appear in most medieval histories or biographical works in the
Islamic world. Instead, she mostly appears in hagiographic narratives and in Sufi doctrinal
works. As best as we can tell, her biography is largely— if not entirely— fictional. Her
status as a subject of historical inquiry is mainly a product of the twentieth century. Because
of this, she upsets the normal distinction made in historiography between historical research
and historical writing. Usually, one researches and assesses historical documents and archival
sources and then puts the conclusions of research into writing.6 However, with Rabi’a, there
are no sources to consult other than hagiographies and other literary works, and these are not
historical documents in the normal sense of the term. As she is known today, Rabi’a is a
figure of literature and all the information that is known about her comes through literature.
Thus, to write about her one must make use of literature and take literary forms of
representation into account.
In the modern period, scholars of Islamic Studies in both Europe and the Arab world
have tried to de-mythologize the figure of Rabi’a al-‘Adawiyya in order to write about her
historically. This has created two problems. First, some writers make the mistake of treating
the literary representations of Rabi’a uncritically as historical data or empirical facts.7
Naïvely, they accept virtually everything that is written about her. This is clearly a mistake,
because as we shall see in the chapters below, not only is most of what is written about Rabi’a
governed by tropes more than empirical reality but key elements of her story, especially her
vita or life-story, can be shown to be fictional, even if they are represented as facts.
Second, in trying to avoid the naivety of the previous group of writers, others go too
far in the opposite direction. By trying to treat Rabi’a in a purely empirical manner, they
diminish her as a religious and cultural figure by either dismissing her as a subject of history
altogether or by stripping away the levels of figurative meaning that have made her an
important part of Islamic cultural memory.8 As a figure of cultural memory, Rabi’a al-
‘Adawiyya is not unlike the Islamic mythical figure of al-Khidr (The Green One), who in
Muslim folklore reappears in every age to guide a new generation of seekers with his
wisdom.9 As Mircea Eliade has observed, myths and stories (including hagiographies and
modern histories) often contain the same tropes, despite being expressed in different idioms.
Eliade believed that whenever the figurative meaning of an account of the past is paramount
(or as he put it, when “the essential precedes existence”), one is in the realm of myth.10

6 Frank Ankersmit, Meaning, Truth, and Reference in Historical Representation (Ithaca, New York:
Cornell University Press, 2012), 60
7 This approach characterizes the great majority of works written on Rabi’a in the modern period,
including a vast amount of Internet references that are too numerous to count.
8 See for example, Julian Baldick, “The Legend of Rabi’a of Basra: Christian Antecedents, Muslim
Counterparts,” Religion 19 (1990). Baldick’s view of the Rabi’a narratives as fictional is apparent in
the title of this article. His concern is mainly to identify literary topoi that he can compare with
Christian antecedents, without discussing their figural meaning or the role that they play in the
construction of the Rabi’a myth.
9 See Hugh Talat Halman, Where the Two Seas Meet: The Qur’anic Story of al-Khidr and Moses in
Sufi Commentaries as a Model of Spiritual Guidance (Louisville, Kentucky: Fons Vitae, 2013). Much
like the present work, this book examines the figure of al-Khidr both as a mythical figure and as a
product of literature.
10 Mircea Eliade, Myth and Reality, Willard R. Trask, trans. (Long Grove, Illinois: Waveland Press,
Inc., 1998 reprint of 1963 original), 92; Eliade struggles with the question of the status of myth in
modernity throughout most of the second half of this work.
3